Tech Wins MacNaughton Cup with 5-1 Victory at NMU

Play Video

MARQUETTE, Mich. – Five different players scored and Jamie Phillips made 27 saves as the No. 13 Michigan Tech hockey team beat Northern Michigan 5-1 tonight (March 5) at the Berry Events Center.

The victory, coupled with Minnesota State's loss to Bemidji State, gives the Huskies a share of the WCHA regular season championship and the No. 1 seed in the league playoffs.

"I'm really proud of our players," said head coach Mel Pearson, who led Michigan Tech to its first MacNaughton Cup title since 1975-76 in just his fifth year behind the bench. "We've had a great regular season and I'm really, really proud of how we finished things off. This is a tough place to play and everyone stepped up and we had all the ingredients we needed to get a big road win."

The Huskies got on the board early when Tyler Heinonen tapped home a Joel L'Esperance centering feed 2:22 into the game. After a turnover just inside the offensive blue line, L'Esperance picked up the puck, turned towards the net and hit Heinonen on the back door for the 1-0 lead.

Jake Lucchini made it 2-0 12:49 into the middle period when he scored a pretty power-play goal from the slot. The play started when Malcolm Gould moved it across the blue line to Matt Roy, who settled the puck and fired. As Roy took his shot, Lucchini streaked to the front of the net and put a perfect redirect on the puck to send it just inside the post.

Then, at 15:05 of the second, Max Vallis buried on a rebound to make it 3-0. With the puck low in the Northern Michigan end, Reid Sturos chipped it to Vallis, who rolled around the net and tried to score on a wrap-around. His bid was stopped, but he followed up and snapped the rebound into the top corner for his eighth goal of the year.

The Wildcats scored their first and only goal of the weekend early in the third, but Sturos answered with a beautiful individual effort to snuff out any hope of a comeback. After working his way into the zone and around an NMU defender, Sturos managed to get the puck up and over the Wildcat goalie and into the net while being pulled down from behind.

Shane Hanna blasted home a goal on the power play with just four seconds left in the contest to close the scoring.

Senior co-captain Alex Petan had a pair of assists in the game to secure WCHA scoring champion honors.

Michigan Tech (21-8-5 overall; 18-7-3 WCHA) will host either Alaska or Alaska Anchorage next weekend (March 11-13) in a first-round WCHA playoff series at the John MacInnes Student Ice Arena. Tickets to the series are available at the SDC Ticket Office, online at BuyHuskiesTickets.com and over the phone at 906-487-2073.